Tammy Zywicki`s Death Spurs Students To Act

GRINNELL, IOWA — Women walk freely across a windswept campus in this central Iowa college town of about 10,000. They appear to be encumbered only by backpacks and the biting cold.

At a college with more than a century`s tradition of admitting women and minorities, many students say they feel liberated here. They experiment with ideas and forgo makeup.

But something happens when the women leave campus now.

Nyasha Spears, 20, a junior from Bismarck, N.D., takes a citizens` band radio with her when she goes on road trips. She does it for her own safety, as well as that of her friends, even though she doesn`t own a car.

Earlier this fall, Grinnell student Tammy Zywicki was abducted and killed after her car broke down on Interstate Highway 80 as she drove to the school. The CB that Spears now carries is a reaction to that brutal crime, but Spears says the CB doesn`t give her a sense of freedom.

Instead, it makes her feel trapped. And this kind of feeling-that more and more women are living in fear of random violence-is something men and women at Grinnell want to change.

So Spears and like-minded Grinnell students formed Fearless, which questions fundamental assumptions about women and violence while raising awareness of safety issues.

On a campus known for its abolitionist roots and its willingness to confront social ills, it seems fitting that Grinnell students would organize a reform group after the murder of one of their own.

The private, liberal arts college, founded in 1846, has about 1,240 students, and is about equally divided between men and women, college spokesman Mark Couch said.

There is a strong progressive bent at Grinnell, said Couch, a 1987 graduate, and the top three choices for majors in a recent year were history, economics and English. Economics is newly popular.

``The pragmatic edge of the students is starting to show,`` he said.

``Our students have always been active volunteer types. Over (class)

breaks, they organize activities.``

Idealism still reigns, or at least co-reigns here, as evident by the 14-page Fearless pamphlet, subtitled ``Together We Can Change the World.``

The group`s short-term aim is to put emergency call boxes along every mile of federally funded highway.

``Let`s first address safety and then say, `Why do we have to address this?` `` Spears said as she spread out her notes in a booth in the Forum, a campus meeting place. ``Why aren`t women allowed to walk down the street? Why aren`t women allowed to wear `provocative clothes`? And why are we told we can`t drive down an interstate alone on a Sunday afternoon?``

The group has about 100 members, both women and men. Phil Incorvia, a 21- year-old senior, has embraced the group`s desire to do away with portraits of women as victims in movies, television and in other media.

``It`s not a justice-seeking organization, it`s not a policing organization,`` Incorvia said. ``It`s more we`re trying to change the attitude that petite, blond females are the target of choice.``

``White, blond females are perceived by men as who you take your aggressions out on. They`re portrayed in the media as who you beat up. I think we`re trying to shove through the wall of perception.``

Zywicki, an art history and Spanish double major about to begin her senior year, was a petite woman with long blond hair.

When her body was found in a roadside ditch near Sarcoxie, Mo., police received calls from law enforcement officials around the country who said they, too, were looking for a missing petite, blond female.

Abductions of women in general are all too common, Spears said. At the University of Nebraska alone, two women were abducted this fall, she said.

Members of Fearless will try to make highways safer while fighting what they call gender-based violence through education, legislation and

communication.

There is a committee assigned to each topic, and members are armed with office supplies and the energy to spend hours on the telephone.

Fearless plans to lead workshops for school and community groups and Girl Scout and Boy Scout troops to encourage males to question pervasive messages about violence against women.

Closer to home, women who want an escort while walking across campus now have that service at Grinnell, Spears said, adding that the idea had been in the works for a while, but Zywicki`s death helped bring it to fruition.

JoAnn Zywicki, Tammy`s mother, said during a visit to Grinnell last weekend that she supports the cause.

``There are a lot of attitudes that need to be changed,`` she said.

``Women need to feel that they can do what they have to do without feeling at risk.``